Somebody posing as a Washington Post reporter convinced ESPN on Monday that one of the Washington Capitals’ star players had been suspended for tonight’s decisive Eastern Conference playoff Game 7 against the New York Rangers.
“I was on my way to the rink this morning and my buddy called me and was a little upset I was missing Game 7,” said Capitals defenseman Mike Green, a finalist for the Norris Trophy given to the NHL’s top defenseman.

“I had no idea what for. It kind of caught me off guard.”
ESPN SportsCenter hosts Josh Elliot and Hannah Storm relayed that Green and teammate Donald Brashear were suspended under a “Breaking News” banner Monday at 9:52 a.m.
Within a half hour, ESPN retracted the story.
“Our news desk received the call from someone representing themselves as a Washington Post reporter,” ESPN spokesman Dan Quinn said.
“We didn’t follow our own fact-checking procedures and mistakenly reported the story.”